


you're still inside the world

by sandyk



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Post Stranger Things 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 19:40:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13643121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/pseuds/sandyk
Summary: Steve's not going to college.





	you're still inside the world

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alessandriana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandriana/gifts).



> not mine, no profit garnered. title from the national's son.

Steve decided not to go to college and it made the rest of his senior year so much easier. That dickwad Billy dropping out and joining the army, also made things easier and totally better. 

Things that did not make his life easier: Dustin's obsession with finding a job for Steve after graduation. "I can work for my dad," Steve said.

"That's not where your journey should go," Dustin said. "You have a very particular set of skills, young man. You should go to college."

"I'm not going to college," Steve said. 

Dustin waited for him after school, after basketball practice. "I have an idea," he said. The kid kept getting taller. "You could be a bodyguard."

Steve thought about it. "Who needs a bodyguard in Hawkins?"

"Dream bigger than Hawkins," Dustin said. "El! El could use a bodyguard. Or Will."

"El is her own bodyguard, and Will is fine," Steve said. He hadn't checked in the last day or so, but as of Monday at lunch, Will Byers was fine. 

"I bet there are people in Indianapolis who would need your skills," Dustin said. 

"How am I paying for this? Just get in my car, drive to Indianapolis? Put up flyers? Dustin, your plans suck." Steve said, "Do you need a ride?"

"Of course I do," Dustin said. "Okay, maybe not bodyguard. Gym teacher. Yeah, gym teacher. You don't need a degree for that."

"Actually, you do. I don't know why, but you do," Steve said. It was the first idea Dustin had brought up Steve didn't hate or find completely ridiculous.

"Okay, so you have to go to college," Dustin said. 

"I'm not going to college," Steve said. 

Dustin naturally convinced his friends to join in what he insisted on calling "a new campaign." Now he had Lucas and his girlfriend Max talking to him about college. 

"Gym teachers suck," Max said. "Everywhere I've been. I bet you wouldn't suck. You should do it for kids like us."

"I have a responsibility?" 

Lucas said, "You have a responsibility. You can't ignore the call."

"You guys are so nuts," Steve said. Once he ditched the kids, he did head to the guidance counselor's office. College. He thumbed through the books looking for some place nearby, some place he had a chance to get accepted at. Three different girls came in and smiled at him. He smiled back. Gave them a little nod. The guidance counselor came out of his office.

"Steve, are you reconsidering?"

"Maybe," Steve said. He hated admitting stuff like that to adults. He said, "Say I wanted to do something, like, I don't know, play basketball, or maybe teach basketball, where would I do that?"

The guidance counselor was obscenely excited, it was gross. Nancy would look like that. Dustin would look even more like that. 

But. It was absolutely true that most gym teachers sucked. It didn't mean Steve had a calling. But it did mean he could do something good. 

He waited until he got his acceptance to even mention it to Dustin, though.


End file.
